QKI

Overview

QKI (Quaking) encodes an RNA-binding protein in the STAR (Signal Transduction Activators of RNA) family involved in RNA processing and mRNA stability. In cancer, QKI acts both as a tumor suppressor via focal deletion in renal cell carcinoma and as an oncogenic fusion partner contributing dimerization domains to NTRK2 in pilocytic astrocytoma.

Alterations observed in the corpus

  • Novel 5’ fusion partner for NTRK2 in pilocytic astrocytoma (QKI:NTRK2 fusion); QKI contributes a dimerization domain predicted to confer ligand-independent activation of NTRK2 kinase; identified alongside NACC2:NTRK2 in 3 non-cerebellar samples PMID:23817572
  • Highlighted as a downstream pathway and SCNA feature in TieDIE / focal-deletion analyses of ccRCC (TCGA 450-case multi-platform dataset) PMID:23792563
  • Sole gene in the 6q26 minimal deletion region in GBM; homozygous deletion (n=9) and intragenic mutation (n=5) support a tumor-suppressor role PMID:24120142

Cancer types (linked)

  • Pilocytic astrocytoma: oncogenic QKI:NTRK2 fusion (non-cerebellar cases) PMID:23817572
  • Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC): focal deletion identified in TCGA analysis PMID:23792563

Co-occurrence and mutual exclusivity

Therapeutic relevance

  • The QKI:NTRK2 fusion nominates NTRK2 (TrkB) inhibition as a therapeutic strategy in non-cerebellar pilocytic astrocytomas where surgical resection is limited PMID:23817572

Open questions

  • Whether QKI:NTRK2 fusions respond to clinical TRK inhibitors (larotrectinib, entrectinib) has not been directly tested in pilocytic astrocytoma.
  • The contribution of QKI focal deletion to ccRCC pathogenesis and whether it functions as a tumor suppressor in this context remain undefined.

Sources

This page was processed by crosslinker on 2026-05-09. - PMID:24120142

This page was processed by crosslinker on 2026-05-09.